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SIGMUND FREUD AND THE GHOSTLY

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The Father Of Psychology Attributed A Surprising Importance to Ghosts
The Father Of Psychology Attributed A Surprising Importance To Ghosts

Did Ghosts Form The Basis Of All Human Thought?

In several of his books, the so-called father of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud, speculated about the role that ghosts played in the human psyche, as well as in our development as a species. And while we now know that much of what Freud said about human sexuality was probably wrong, many of the things he wrote about the ghostly still seem accurate.

In The Uncanny, for instance, he remarked on the powerful grip in which the ghostly continues to hold us in spite of all our technological advancements: “To many people, the acme of the uncanny is represented by anything having to do with death, bodies, spirits, revenants, and ghosts. . . . in hardly any other sphere has our thinking and feeling changed so little since primitive times or the old been so well preserved, under a thin veneer, as in our relation to death.” [Read more…] about SIGMUND FREUD AND THE GHOSTLY

SPIRITUALISM

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The Fox Sisters—Kate (1838–92), Leah (1814–90), and Margaret (or Maggie) (1836–93)—were famous mediums in Rochester, New York as well as the original Spiritualists.
The Fox sisters—Kate (1838–92), Leah (1814–90), and Margaret (or Maggie) (1836–93)—were famous mediums in Rochester, New York who started the Spiritualist Movement.

When We Began Talking To Ghosts

Acording to the central belief of the religious and philosophical movement known as Spiritualism, not only is it possible to contact the spirits of the dead, but such contact can be beneficial, with the living receiving comfort, information, and advice from the departed. These communications frequently are exchanged through the intercession of facilitators known as mediums—people who have a special sensitivity for talking to, hearing, and even seeing spirits. Traditionally, spirits speak through a medium during a ceremony called a seance, which usually involves several people including the medium sitting around a table in the dark. However, contemporary mediums can give “spirit readings” in almost any setting, and people can even contact spirits on their own through such means as a Ouija board.

Spiritualism traces it roots to the Rochester area of upstate New York, where in 1848 three sisters, Kate (1838–92), Leah (1814–90), and Margaret (or Maggie) (1836–93) Fox, began claiming they could communicate with people who had died. Kate, the youngest Fox sister, was the most prominent medium of the three, and she allegedly received paranormal messages through coded knocks or “rappings” that she elicited from spirits during group sessions in houses that supposedly were haunted. These sessions—the first seances—became extremely popular, and soon a number of charismatic mediums including the Fox sisters were making a living traveling the country and helping people speak to the dead. By the early 1850s, seances had caught on in other English-speaking countries as well, especially in Britain, and the simple “table rappings” soon evolved into elaborate performances involving musical instruments that played by themselves and visible spirits who floated in the air. [Read more…] about SPIRITUALISM

SLENDER MAN

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Anonymous Chalk Drawing Of Slenderman. Photo:MDL70
Anonymous Chalk Drawing Of Slenderman. Photo:MDL70

He’s Not A Ghost—Though He Could Be A Demon

In fact, Slender Man is no more and no less than the good, old boogeyman. He’s just been refurbished a bit for the internet culture.

Dating back no further than 2009, the Slender Man myth involves a supernatural being who follows in the well-worn phantom footsteps of solitary, ghoulish, and predatory characters produced in cultures throughout time, and across the world. Wherever they’ve originated, these outskirts-dwelling fiends invariably kidnap and feast on children—in fact their very purpose among many groups is to scare kids into behaving.

In some countries, the local Slender Man/boogeyman-like legend is called the “Sack Man” because of his habit of stuffing children into a cloth bag in order to drag them away. Europe is full of Sack Men—though they also occur on other continents. A man who grew up in Arizona’s Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community during the early 1900s once told us that adults there used to frighten children with tales of a witch who would remove their heads and gather them into a sack if they misbehaved at night. [Read more…] about SLENDER MAN

GHOSTS AND FAIRIES

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An Illustration For Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Painted In 1793-1794 By Swiss Artist Johann Heinrich Füssli
An Illustration For Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Painted In 1793-1794 By Swiss Artist Johann Heinrich Füssli

They Once Were Equally Haunting

Perhaps we should call it folkloric evolution. Or maybe we ought to see it as a spontaneous paranormal makeover. But whatever term we use, it’s clear that fairies are viewed far differently today than they were hundreds of years ago. Back then, they weren’t always radiant, or even particularly friendly; in fact, in some places they were associated with graveyards, and the dead.

In his book The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts, author Owen Davies tells us that as late as the 1800s, especially in Scotland but perhaps also in a few other areas of Britain, there was frequent confusion concerning what was a fairy, and what was a ghost. Both “were considered by some to be departed spirits who lingered on the earth.” [Read more…] about GHOSTS AND FAIRIES

WHY DO GHOSTS WEAR SHEETS?

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Illustration For The Scottish Ghost Story, "The Winding Sheet." By George Brisbane Douglas, 1856-1935
Illustration For The Scottish Ghost Story, “The Winding Sheet.” Image By George Brisbane Douglas, 1856-1935

A Shroud, By Any Other Name

Why does a person “dress up” as a ghost by cutting eye-holes in a bed sheet and then draping that sheet over his or her head? Does a traditional ghost really wear sheets?

Well, people in the English-speaking world have been “doing” ghosts in just this way for hundreds of years, and there is a good reason for it. In Britain, until relatively recently, a wooden coffin was a post-mortem luxury that was far too expensive for many people. In fact, only the relatively well-to-do could afford coffins in which to bury the remains of their departed loved ones. That meant that the corpses of poor people—and there were a lot of those—had to go coffinless. [Read more…] about WHY DO GHOSTS WEAR SHEETS?

CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE SIX

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Ghost (1990)

As ghost movies go, this one’s not all that scary—though it does contain plenty of suspenseful scenes. Rather, much of the pathos stems from the paranormal romance between Molly (Demi Moore), a potter, and Sam, (Patrick Swayze), her banker lover who is murdered and becomes a ghost after he uncovers some illegal financial activity.

With the help of medium Oda Mae Brown (Whoopie Goldberg), the ghostly Sam reestablishes contact with Molly, who at first doesn’t believe he exists. Sam then provides Oda Mae with the security codes to a bank account owned by the movie’s villain, Carl (Tony Goldwyn) and coaches her through a harrowing but successful attempt to withdraw all the money. [Read more…] about CLASSIC MOVIE GHOSTS TAKE SIX

BRITISH BELIEF IN GHOSTS

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A Yorkshire Terror, 1621. Illustration: Courtesy of Wellcome Images
A Yorkshire Terror, 1621. Illustration: Wellcome Images

Ghosts vs. Aliens vs. God: Ghosts Win!

Elsewhere on this site we have ascertained that Britain is the most haunted nation on earth, hosting approximately one ghost per square mile, according to British experts on such matters. And according to a new survey conducted by Ripley’s Believe It or Not, the Brits themselves are every bit as haunted as their castles and their countryside: More British adults believe in ghosts than believe in God.

Ripley’s survey of 1,500 Britons, published on October 28, 2014, revealed that 55 percent believe in ghosts, as opposed to only 25 percent who believe in God. Other supernatural beings included in the survey were aliens (51 percent), UFOs (42 percent), and angels (27 percent). [Read more…] about BRITISH BELIEF IN GHOSTS

HOW DOES A OUIJA BOARD WORK?

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Ouija Boards Produce Uncanny Results In Many Languages. Photo: Vetranio
Ouija Boards Produce Uncanny Results In Many Languages. Photo: Vetranio

How Do Ouija Boards Work?

Ouija has been studied in scientific laboratories, and scientists are in agreement with spiritualists that these “talking boards” can sometimes produce some uncanny results. Where researchers part company with the true believers is on the explanation. Rather than crediting spirits, the men and women in the white coats attribute the eerie messages, predictions, and other communications emanating from Ouija boards to the subconscious minds of the people who use them.

Specifically, scientists think that—at least in situations where nobody is intentionally moving the Ouija board planchette—a neurological phenomenon called the ideomotor effect, or ideomotor response, is responsible for all those eerie Ouija messages that make otherwise inexplicable sense. First identified in the mid-1800s, the ideomotor effect involves involuntary muscular reactions triggered by any of the unconscious parts of the brain. Examples would include people jumping when startled, talking in their sleep, spontaneously crying during a sad movie, or automatically extending their arms during a fall. According to the ideomotor Ouija board hypothesis, the subconscious mind or minds of one or more of the participants cause nearly imperceptible muscular movements that make the planchette slide about the board, answering questions and spelling out information. [Read more…] about HOW DOES A OUIJA BOARD WORK?

WHAT IS A SEANCE?

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Seance From the TV Series, Weird or What? Photo: Sgerbic
Tongue-In-Cheek Seance From the TV Series, Weird or What? Photo: Sgerbic

What Are Seances?

Quite simply, a seance, or séance, is an attempt to communicate with the dead, something people have been trying for thousands of years. In Homer’s epic Greek poem, the Odyssey, written nearly 3,000 years ago, the hero, Odysseus, spills the blood of a bull near the entrance to Hades in order to lure out the shades of the dead, several of whom he wishes to speak to. And in the Old Testament of the bible (Samuel 28:7-20), King Saul asks the Witch of Endor to summon the spirit of the prophet, Samuel, in order to ask him about the outcome of an upcoming battle.

Throughout most of history the vast majority of people have been afraid of ghosts, and contacting ghosts intentionally was usually the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. However, this attitude changed a bit in the mid-1800s with the rise of the Spiritualist movement. Spiritualists believe that not only is contact with the dead possible, but that it can also be beneficial, with spirits including those of departed friends, loved ones, and historical figures providing comfort and even practical advice. It was during the early days of Spiritualism that that the term “seance”—French for sitting together or gathering—came into popular use in the U.S. and Britain. [Read more…] about WHAT IS A SEANCE?

CATCH A GHOST, WIN A MILLION

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This Is James Randi During A Public Appearance. He Will Pay You $1 Million For Proof That Ghosts Exist. Photo: Paolo Attivissimo
This Is James Randi During A Public Appearance. “The Amazing Randi” Will Pay You $1 Million For Proof That Ghosts Exist. Photo: Paolo Attivissimo

The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

One million dollars is yours. All you have to do is capture scientifically credible proof that a single ghost exists, or otherwise demonstrate concrete evidence of the paranormal.

James Randi—AKA The Amazing Randi—is a former stage magician and paranormal skeptic who for the last 50 years has offered a hefty cash prize to anyone who could demonstrate the paranormal in a scientifically controlled test. Randi began with a $1,000 offer of his own money in 1964, and currently offers the $1 million award through The James Randi Eductional Foundation, an organization “founded in 1996 to help people defend themselves from paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.” [Read more…] about CATCH A GHOST, WIN A MILLION